


Stupid Superstitious Bastard

by 19_empty_vacancies



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Pre-Relationship, Superstition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 04:49:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17094224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/19_empty_vacancies/pseuds/19_empty_vacancies
Summary: You know, for all the shit Ryan gets for being the big believer in the supernatural and in powers beyond human comprehension, he didn’t put that much stock in superstitions.





	Stupid Superstitious Bastard

You know, for all the shit Ryan gets for being the big believer in the supernatural and in powers beyond human comprehension, he didn’t put that much stock in superstitions. That’s not to say he doesn’t believe them or play through with some; he follows through with the usual throwing salt over your shoulder or knocking on wood to not jinx something, but other than that it’s all kind of nonsense to him. His parents have some superstitions that try as they might, never really caught on with him and Ryan figured that was the same with most families. You hear them when you’re a kid and then you grow out of them the same way you grow out of believing in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus.

He’d voiced these thoughts to Shane one day after some random conversation about who knows, probably something ridiculous, and Shane nods along and then lets out a throw away comment about growing up with a lot of superstitions in his family.

“Polish roots and all that, lotta funky superstitions to play around with,” is what Shane had said with the most ridiculous shoulder shimmy before completely derailing that conversation by asking what organs would sell best on the black market.

The conversation is very quickly forgotten with the debate of what you would be able to buy, which then devolved to the kinds of fucked up things people could sell on the black market. Somehow, a lot of their conversations end like this.

It’s when Ryan watches Shane pick up a coin off the ground and gently blow on it before placing it in his pocket that the conversation on superstitions comes back to him, because this was not the first time he’d seen Shane do that. The instance flitters in the back of his mind for a couple of weeks and in that time Ryan watches Shane do a bunch of things that a self-proclaimed non-believer ought not do.

It becomes a mystifying game for Ryan after that, trying to figure out if some of the random shit Shane does is just because he’s a weird dude or because he’s a weird dude who is superstitious.

\---

When they’re on locations, Ryan tends to be fully absorbed in the history of the place they’re at and the evidence he’d hoping to find. The unrelenting fear, anxiety and panic he feels while on location also takes up a large chunk of his brain’s computing functions and thus, he tends to tunnel vision a bit in order to get the job done. It’s honestly sometimes so surprising that with how keyed up he is when on the hunts that he misses a lot of what goes on around him. And by this he means, what goes on with Shane.

Ryan first notices it when he’s watching raw footage for the Voodoo episode and marking down timestamps where he thinks he heard something in the audio or saw something in a shadowy corner of the screen. It’s during the solo investigations and lock-ins. Shane alternates tapping his fingers against the wooden counter while waiting his turn to investigate and softly rapping his knuckles against the wooden frame of the door he’s leaning against while Ryan is doing his lock-in.

At first Ryan writes it off as agitation and boredom, because fuck knows the big guy gets tired of refuting hard evidence for five hours a night. But then he notices it happening on different locations, goes back and watches some of the unaired bits and sees more knocking and tapping. And like, it’s a little weird, how did he not notice it before?

A cursory bit of research leads him to the origin of knocking on wood, and while it’s honestly quite interesting, it doesn’t fit with the times Shane does it nor the reason he thinks Shane does it. So he delves deeper, throws other words in the search bar to try and narrow his search field before remembering that you know, he could just ask Shane.

When he asks that night, semi absorbed in the documentary they’re watching while eating dinner, he was kind of expecting a non-answer or a joke. But Shane just shrugs as he scoops more rice and vegetables onto his fork.

“I don’t really notice when I’m doing it, honestly didn’t know I was until just now but it’s something my grandmother told me. You tap or knock on wood both to ward off bad luck and to, uh, to—” Shane’s face starts turning pink, much to Ryan’s delight. “When you’re scared or feel fear, you knock or tap on wood to scare the emotion away.”

Ryan can’t help the smile that fights its way across his face. “Feel fear a lot, do you, big guy?”

“Fuck off, Ryan.”

(Ryan watches the footage again, notices that Shane is perfectly fine doing his own solo investigations and lock-ins. He only taps when it’s Ryan's turn doing it. He tries hard not to read too much into it.)

\---

Ryan’s sitting at Shane’s kitchen counter absently spinning his bottle of beer on the counter while he watches Shane set up his recording gear because they’d just heard the beginning rolls of a most unexpected but very welcome thunderstorm. It still amuses Ryan that they have the same interest in recording ambient sounds that may never be used, mentally adds it to the folder labeled ‘Reasons we’re best friends.’

Once everything is setup to Shane’s very simple standards, he straightens up with a pleased smile. “I think we’ll get some good sounds today.”

Twisting on his stool to look through the window behind him, Ryan nods. “Certainly looks promising, lightning’s already started.”

“Oh shit, it has?”

It was clearly a rhetorical question as Shane somehow crosses the room in three steps to check the window to confirm that there is indeed a light show happening outside. Ryan leans back against the counter and watches the way Shane moves through his apartment checking all his windows are sealed before returning to the one behind the kitchen table.

“Are you--how come you’re opening it?”

“Gotta have it open a crack, so the lightning can escape.”

Shane walked back to join him at the counter and plucked the beer from his hand. “Besides, the sound will be a little crisper with it open.”

\---

There was a day Shane came into work with a splotchy neck, irritated skin disappearing under the collar of his shirt and reappearing on forearms bared by the bunched-up sleeves. When he’d asked what the hell happened, Shane had said something about leaving his clothes outside on the little fold out clothes line that sits on his balcony. Ryan didn’t really catch much of it because it devolved quickly to grumbling about forgetting to grab them before night fell and paying the price.

\---

Shane always sets the table with a tablecloth, regardless of whose apartment he’s in.

“It’s saves having to wipe down the table, Ryan” was his argument whenever he brought it up and, yeah Shane might be right, but before they started hanging out at his place, he’d never even  _owned_ a tablecloth. Shane had bought one for him and put it in his fourth kitchen drawer along with matching tea towels.

“You’re a grown man, Ryan. Well, mostly grown, and as such you should fucking own a tablecloth. What are you, a heathen?”

So, the tablecloth became a staple in his apartment and he dealt with its appearance and permanence. The fact that Shane absolutely forbade Ryan from ever shaking it outside at night was super fucking weird though. Whenever he went to lift the cloth, Shane always told him to shake it out in his tub or fold it up and leave it for morning.

Ryan follows the demand, but he still doesn’t know why.

\---

Ryan notices the way some of their friends have picked up certain quirks from Shane.

They've started stirring their drinks a certain way and blowing on coins. After doing sound on a couple of the Tasty productions as a favour to Rie, the crew stopped sitting down while cakes were baking because of some bullshit Shane had said about “when you sit, the cake sits.”

\---

Shane has a horseshoe nailed to the wall above his front door.

Ryan stares at it as the Ladylike crew set up, knows for sure that it was caught on film as they got staging shots. Ryan also knows that half of the film won’t be used because while they got the staging shots, they’ll probably be cut to make time for the ridiculous expanse of Shane’s clothes laid out on the floor.

This time, Ryan knew the reasoning and symbolism behind the horseshoe and its placement. It’d come up in his deep dive of superstitions (with subdivisions of Polish superstitions to be inclusive to the Sasquatch’s roots). They’re meant to go on the outside of an entry door as a symbol of protection against evil spirits and to bring good luck, but Shane has it inside so that whenever he leaves, his day is blessed with good luck.

\---

Ryan finds it both frustrating and hilarious that the guy who is so adamantly against belief in the supernatural puts so much stock in superstitions. He’s literally seen the guy pick up pieces of a mirror he’d broken on location with his eyes closed so that he wouldn’t see his reflection in the shards.

Finally fed up, Ryan interrupts their bi-annual viewing of _The Mummy._ “How come you talk so much clout about science and evidence when regarding the supernatural, but you believe in all those stupid superstitions?”

Shane, half sunk into the couch, rolls his head against the cushion to look at him. “I mean, most of it is just habit from growing up and instinct at this point. Some of it apparently works even if you don't believe it, like you with the tablecloth," Shane shrugs. "I don’t know, Ryan. I can find flaws in a lot of things, I just. It’s nice to have some things to believe in, even if it’s something like leaving the window open a bit.”

\---

In the future, Ryan will wake up to warmth dissipating as Shane shuffles out of his tight hold, will watch with sleep clouded eyes as Shane tiredly sits up and shifts and tucks the blankets behind him so that the cool air doesn’t reach Ryan.

Will learn that Shane always starts the day by stepping out of bed with his right foot.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from The Mummy (1999) because that movie is fuego.
> 
> I have this belief that even though you can say ghosts and shit aren't real, you can take stock in superstition and as such, this was my brain child. Some of the superstitions are ones that I grew up with (the tablecloth, the clothes in before dark, the window) and others mentioned are from looking into Polish superstitions because Shane's background is Polish and that shit is handed down even if you don't know why you do them. They're a little altered in my description of them and that's because each person has a different way of describing the superstition so I embellished a tad.
> 
> Hope you guys liked it.


End file.
